Go Phillies!

Happy 4th Birthday, Connor!

Several months back, I was contacted through the fabulous world of Facebook by a friend of mine to make her son's 4th birthday cake.  Kelly and I played basketball together in high school and even ended up at the same college.  We have been out of touch for awhile, so I was thrilled and surprised when she asked if I could make a Phillies themed cake for Connor.  Although the cake was needed for only a few short weeks after Luke was born, I couldn't pass up an oportunity to make a Phillies themed birthday cake.  As you probably remember from posts past, my husband is a Mets fan.  I am, however, not.  And I am determined to make my child a Phillies Phan!!! 

Kelly asked for a cake for the party and cupcakes to take home as favors.  Conor is allergic to nuts and likes vanilla cake, so I made my simple vanilla cake recipe from my Magnolia Bakery cookbook.   I will admit that the design of this cake is all Matt.  For a Mets fan, he really got into making this cake (I think he's a Phillies Phan at heart!). 

I cut all of the designs out of fondant for the cake and just piped on some red icing for the cupcakes.  I think they turned out pretty good.

Kelly wrapped the cupcakes up in these adorable boxes and tied them with a pretty red ribbon.

I will admit here that I am terrible at covering entire cakes in fondant.  I need a lot of practice.  Because of that, I had a lot of cracks along the side of the cake.  Matt came up with the great idea of covering oreos with fondant to make baseballs.  Genius.  Necessity is the mother of invention...

In order to cover up another large crack, Matt cut out this great MLB logo out of fondant.  I think he may be better at this than me!



Happy 4th Birthday, Connor!

Speaking of the Phillies and trying to make Luke a Phillies Phan, we got one step closer a couple of weeks ago while on our way to visit my parents in Raleigh, NC.  While waiting for our plane, the Phillie Phanatic and a few players were helping out at Southwest Airlines.  Luke got in pictures with a few current players, a few past players and the Phillie Phanatic!  He even made the local news...CHECK IT OUT!!!!!

Here is Luke with Larry Anderson, Gary Matthews and John Mayberry, Jr.  A few weeks later, my brother and sister-in-law met John Mayberry, Jr. at a charity function, and he said he remembered Luke!!  So cool.

Here is Luke and I with Shane Victorino. 

And of course with the Phillie Phanatic!!!

It was such a cool experience that we ended up missing our flight!  Luckily, Southwest Airlines was very gracious and put us on the very next flight and we were only an hour later than we originally planned. 

GO PHILLIES!!!!



Gender Reveal Cake

Growing up, I was fortunate enough to have three awesome older brothers who taught me the coolness of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, wrestling, and GI Joe.  I learned to throw a baseball the correct way, to throw a punch without breaking my thumb, and how to box out for a rebound.  I wouldn't change this experience for anything in the world, especially now that we still remain close, and I know my brothers would do anything for me.  However, because of this overload of testosterone, girly things were not always on the top of my agenda, despite my mother's best efforts.  Yes, I owned more Barbies than any one girl should, and my Barbie Dream House stood proudly in the basement.  But no, there wasn't always someone in the house who wanted to play those things unless Superfly Jimmy Snuka was invited to the party.  (Small side note--I'd like to give my brother, Jimmy, a shout out for always offering to play the Sweet Valley High Board Game with me...his only requirement was that he had to be Elizabeth or he wasn't playing!) 

Enter, the blessing that was the Szelagowski Family.  Three girls, all around my age, with an overload of girl toys and games, only two houses away.  Mall Madness, Girl Talk Boardgame (sticker zits included), and Bop Magazine were always available.  Doing each other's hair and playing "school" and "house" were on the agenda almost every day.  I have very few memories of my childhood where this family was not involved.

Throughout the years, we've vaguely kept in touch, but through the wonders of facebook, we've now been able to keep abreast of each other's lives.  All three girls have started beautiful families of their own, and its been wonderful to see what great lives they have been able to create for themselves.  The middle daughter, Kate, started her own side business making all sorts of creative things, including headbands and bows for little girls as well as beautiful invitations, cards, etc.  When I found out that I was pregnant, I knew that I wanted to ask her to create an announcement for our son when he was born. I emailed Kate, and she created ten of the cutest cards I could imagine!  I can't wait for our son to be born and mail those beauties out. 

Well, a few weeks ago, Kate announced that she was expecting a second child.  She already has one adorable little girl who is Kate's spitting image.  Kate asked if I would consider making a cake for her to reveal the gender of her baby.  I, of course, said, "YES!"  Last week, Kate had an ultrasound where she asked the technician to seal the results of the ultrasound in an envelope, which Kate delivered to me immediately.  I was to keep my lips sealed for an entire week and then bake a cake tinted either pink or blue inside.  I am so honored that I got to be part of this awesome suprise!  I had a lot of fun making the cake and helping to celebrate the life of another Szelagowski grandchild!

I decided to turn to my trusty Magnolia cookbook and use the vanilla cake recipe.  I love this recipe for its simplicity and fresh taste.  The recipe calls for half self-rising flour and half all-purpose flour.  I swapped out the all-purpose flour for cake flour, which I think makes it a little more tender and light.  I also swapped out the vanilla extract for vanilla bean paste, to give it a richer taste.  Also, there is something decadent about seeing all of those little vanilla beans in the batter!  I also used the same cookbook for the vanilla buttercream recipe.  Again, simple and delicious. 

For decorations, I wanted something baby-ish that didn't necessarily give away the baby's gender.  I was inspired by a cake that my co-worker's sister made for her baby shower...check it out at The Sunday Flog.  I thought the buttons were a cute idea. 

The buttons and letters were made from fondant dyed pastel colors.

My frosting job wasn't my finest.  I have found that the most delicious tasting frostings don't always spread the best or most evenly.

I used round cookie cutters to cut out the circles, then a slightly smaller one to indent the edges of the larger buttons.  The end of a straw was all I used to cut out the little button holes.  Easy-peasey, as my godson likes to say.

I made sure to seal the box up with a label so that any peeking ahead of time would be obvious!

Have I mentioned that I love my labels?

The little girl with the adorable look on her face is the big-sister-to-be, Julianne.  I love her expression in this picture.  So excited to find out!

Its a.....

GIRL!!!!!

Kate said she was definitely suprised...she guessed boy.  Congratulations to Kate and Jim Asher!!  Thanks for letting me be a part of your celebration!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Arlene!

A birthday cake for my "Summer Mom."

I spent many summers during my high school and college years living with my Aunt Arlene at the beach in Long Beach Island.  She has been affectionately known as my "Summer Mom" ever since.  We had dinner at her house to celebrate, and my uncle asked me to bring a chocolate cake.  I decided to to pull out the Magnolia cookbook again, and I used the Devil's Food Cake recipe and the Chocolate Buttercream recipe.  I think it turned out pretty decent.  There wasn't much left of it at the end of the night, so I'll take that as a good sign.  I wanted to keep the cake simple but pretty...

I want to use this picture as proof that the cake was straight at one point.  I slipped on some ice in my driveway and the cake slid a little bit.  By the time I got to my aunt and uncle's house, the cake was a little bit like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. 

I am going to be helping my friend with desserts for her daughter's birthday in March, and i wanted to try out some flowers with fondant.  I like the way this one turned out.  I think I might try my hand at gumpaste over the next month...

Happy Birthday, Aunt Arlene, and thanks for a great dinner, Uncle Walt!  Love you both.



A slightly inappropriate post...enter at your own risk :P

A swim team baby shower...

One of my bestest friends, Denise, asked me to make her a small cake and cupcakes for a baby shower her swim team is throwing for a teammate.   She asked that it be swim themed but baby girl-ish, too.  After about a month of googling, thinking and brainstorming, I came up with an idea for the cupcakes. 

They asked for purple, hence the purple frosting.  

The ducks are made of homemade fondant that took a little while to get to the right colors.  I definitely recommend gel food coloring when using fondant.  Much more vibrant colors.  I used a food coloring pen for the eyes and to fill in the goggles.

When it came to the cake, I was going to make a bigger ducky to go on it, but after talking to Denise last night, she made a special request.  This is what she came up with.  Slightly irreverent but very hilarious.  She swears the girl will find it funny, and I hope she does!  I was hesitant to post this but I think the warning in the post title should be enough! 

This cake speaks for itself....there are no words....

Here is everything all together.  I hope the team has a great time celebrating the newest member of their swim team!

Happy 1st Birthday, Meah.

Meah turns 1.

A friend of mine's niece turns one this weekend, and she and her boyfriend asked me to make a cake and cupcakes to commemorate the occasion.  The only direction they gave was that she was turning one and she is very "girly."  I did some  googling and came up with a cute but simple idea.  Again, I stuck with chocolate cake and vanilla cupcakes, since most kids like simple flavors.  Again, I used Martha's Fluffy Vanilla Icing recipe, which I think is the easiest to work with and tastes fantastic.  All of the other details are made of fondant...

Its snowing here, which always puts me in the mood for baking...

I think the look of the daisies is simple and cute.

I really wanted the cupcakes to coordinate with the cake, and I think it turned out great.

The cake...

The cute little teddy bear...I am digging teddy bears these days and have been wanting to do something with them on a cake...

I asked Matt to come up with a cake board for me since I ran out of them and didn't want to run out to the store in the snow.  This is what he came up with.  Cute, right? 

Happy 1st Birthday, Meah!

Happy 6th Birthday, Kate!

I feel old...

My girl Kate turns six on Monday.  I cannot believe how quickly she's growing.  She's a thoughtful, sweet, beautiful little girl who wanted a Unicorn Birthday Party.  She asked for unicorns and rainbows on her cupcakes.  This was actually more challenging than I thought it would be in terms of design.  Ultimately, I think I did a decent job.   From past experience, I've realized that its best to stick with basic chocolate and vanilla when it comes kids...any other flavors never seem to go over very well.  I used the chocolate and vanilla cake recipes from my Magnolia cookbook, and used the chocolate frosting recipe off of the Hershey's cocoa box.  I used Martha's Fluffy Vanilla Frosting Recipe, as well. 

For the rainbows, I found Extreme Airheads candy and just bent them into the icing.  Viola!  Simple, but kind of neat looking. 

For the unicorns, I did A LOT of googling to try to come up with something feasible.  In the end, I combined a few different ideas to come up with the final product.  I used white fondant for the faces and eyes, chocolate covered sunflower seeds for the horn, a black food coloring pen for the eyes and mouth, and tinted vanilla frosting for the hair.  I hope think they look like unicorns!  Hopefully, Kate will like them for her friend party tomorrow. 

I boxed them all up in nice boxes and again used the label embosser that I received for Christmas.



Have I mentioned how much I love the embosser?

Kate's mom is making a cake for her family party on Sunday, but she asked me to make a unicorn to put on top of the cake.  Not quite my best work, but the first time I've worked with shaping larger fondant figures.  Matt helped me try to figure out how to do it, and I think the end product is okay....

I used a birthday candle for the horn...not sure how I feel about it...

Anyone out there have any tips or suggestions for how to shape figures out of fondant?

Happy 6th Birthday, Kate.  We love you and are so proud of the sweet young lady you are becoming!

Happy 60th Birthday, Mrs. J!

Swimming Pool Cupcakes

One of my best friends' mom turned 60 this week, and her children decided to throw her a pool party.  Denise asked me to make "pool" themed cupcakes for the occasion.  After some googling, I found this idea.  I think they turned out pretty cute!  I used the recipe on the back of the Hershey's cocoa can and made Martha's Fluffy Vanilla icing tinted blue.  I used fondant, Teddy Grahams, gummy LifeSavers, and candy fish I found at HomeGoods for the decorations.  I hope the party was a success.  Happy Birthday, Mrs. J!

Jack's Robot Party

Happy Birthday (Again) Jack!

Jackie (aka Robot Boy) turned three on June 1st but his party isn't until tomorrow.  Jack has been asking for months for cupcakes with robots on them.  Matt and I had a whole idea ready to go last night about how we were going to make a robot shaped cake and cupcakes.  Well, when I went to bake today, my oven was not cooperating.  It kept turning off in the middle of baking, which caused two of the small cakes I was making to collapse in the center.  I got super frustrated and decided to go with a much simpler idea.  I used his invitation as inspiration....

I made a chocolate half sheet cake and swiss meringue butter cream.  I cut the letters and robot out of leftover fondant.  I also decorated around the edges of the cake with chocolate buttercream that I made for the cupcakes.

It wasn't what I originally wanted to make, so I'm a little disappointed.  Hopefully Jack will like it anyway. 

I did not think that the cake would be enough for the large party tomorrow, so I decided to make cupcakes as well.  I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate meringue frosting.  I had found silver jimmies (sprinkles for those of you not from Philly) at HomeGoods a few weeks ago, so I thought they'd be perfect for the robot theme.  I dipped the cupcakes in the silver jimmies, then I had no idea what to do.  My mom and Matt helped me stare at the cupcakes to come up with an idea.  We tried putting eyes and a mouth on them that looked like the eyes on the cake just in a smaller form.  Well, the eyes ended up looking more like deviled eggs.  Then we tried to put red instead of yellow at the center of the eyes.  Then it looked the GEICO money.  Finally, my mom had the idea of doing robot silhouettes on each of the cupakes.  I think they turned out pretty cute. 

It is supposed to be VERY hot tomorrow, and I'm a little worried about the cupcakes and cake melting on the way over to the party.  What do you do to keep cakes from melting and falling apart in the summer time?

CORA Cupcakes

Beef, Beer, & Cupcakes

I work at a not-for-profit agency called CORA, which provides emotional, educational and prevention services for children and families in need.  Like most not-for-profit agencies lately, money is always an issue.  Therefore, CORA is sponsoring a Beef & Beer fundraiser tonight at a local bar.  If you aren't from Philly, you probably have never heard of a beef & beer.  Its self-explanatory really.  Roast beef sandwhiches and beer are served at a local pub or union hall and partying ensues.   It is a great way to raise money, and we are hoping tonight will help our budget at CORA out a little bit.  CORA employees are providing desserts, so I thought I'd make some cupcakes with a CORA theme. 

I made devil's food and butter vanilla cupcakes with fluffy vanila icing.  I had leftover blue fondant and tinted some leftover white fondant a burgandy color.  If you check out CORA's website,  you'll see that I took inspiration from our CORA emblem. 

I hope people enjoy them after a long night of drinking, dancing and donating!